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These 3D printed speakers double up as disco lights

These light-up speakers are an object lesson in the awesome things you can create with a 3D printer

08 April 2013/11:59BST

We've praised 3D printing to the skies before, and the list of cool things that you can create with a 3D printer is only growing – like these 3D printed speakers that double up as disco lights.

Sadly you'll need more than your average Markerbot home 3D printer to print out these sonic beauties. A special printer that can utilise two different materials at once (in this case, a hard plastic and rubber for helping improve the sound quality) is needed to get the job done ─ and that's before you consider the forty hour print time and nearly a further 20 hours to add the lighting and smooth down any printing irregularities.

The lighting side of things is taken care of by RGB LED strips that can be controlled via a bespoke iPad app, with a LumiGeek microcontroller sat in the middle to allow the lights to pulse to the beat. All you have to do is pick the colours and enjoy audiovisual bliss.

The LumiGeek controller will be making its way onto KickStarter if you want to create something similar. Sadly, you'll have to start from scratch when it comes to making the speaker housings themselves – their creator and Autodesk engineer Evan Atherton says they aren't for sale. Probably for the best when the process to make them is north of US$2000.

If you do have access to a particularly talented multi-material 3D printer, full instructions on how to print out the speakers are available here.